PINS: Homeostatic synaptic plasticity – linking past experience to future learning

Lu Chen, PhD, Professor Stanford University, School of Medicine Abstract: Homeostatic plasticity and Hebbian plasticity are two major forms of activity-dependent plasticity that provide neural circuits the ability to modify its function in the face of an ever-changing environment. In this talk, I will discuss some of our recent efforts in investigating the functional interplays between Hebbian and homeostatic synaptic plasticity in vivo. I will focus in particular on how hippocampal memory engram formation may be influenced by behavioral experiences prior to learning through homeostatic synaptic plasticity. Citations: Zhang, Z., Marro, S.G., Zhang, Y.S., Arendt, K.L., Zhou, B., Fair, T., Nan, Y., Südhof, T.C., Wernig, M. and Chen, L. (2018). Fragile-X Mutation Impairs Homeostatic Plasticity in Human Neurons by Blocking Synaptic Retinoic-Acid Signaling. Science Translational Medicine, 10 (452). Hsu, Y., Li, J., Wu, D., Südhof, T.C., and Chen, L. (2019). Synaptic retinoic acid receptor mediates mTOR-dependent metaplasticity that controls hippocampal learning. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116 (14): 7113-7122. Li, J., Jiang, R.Y., Arendt, K.L., Hsu, Y., Zhai, S.R. and Chen, L. (2020). Defective memory engram reactivation underlies impaired fear memory recall in Fragile X syndrome. eLife 2020:9.